Diego Simeone sees kinship with Leicester City but will show no mercy

April 11, 2017April 12, 2017 by admin

The Premier League champions’ heroics last season struck a strong chord with an Atlético Madrid side who have delighted in tearing up Spain’s status quo

And so they meet, these two who achieved the impossible. Leicester City were the team everyone wanted in the Champions League quarter-final but sometimes you should be careful what you wish for, and Atlético Madrid know that better than anyone. Once it was they who everyone wanted, but not any more. Opponents found out the hard way; now they want to avoid them at all costs. The club who celebrated their centenary with a song that lauded “What a way to suffer!” did a Leicester before Leicester did. And they did not stop there.

They are not the same. But at Atlético there is a sense that they share something with their opponents. Leicester’s title was followed with fascination and fondness in Spain. When, incredibly, it actually happened, it was celebrated. It also provoked recurring questions, asked amongst themselves and posed to the English. Could it ever happen here? And what would the equivalent be? Well, here is the thing: maybe Atlético winning the league was just that, back in 2014.